Hackensack University Medical Center will soon have a new 43,500-square-foot central utility plant — signaling the start of the hospital's long-talked-about renovation plans.

The goal of the utility plant, which will be built near Second and Atlantic streets, is to condense utilities that are now scattered across the hospital's campus into one location, officials said. It will also provide power across the campus more efficiently, they said.

“Building the future of health care requires constant transformation both figuratively and literally for our hospital,” Mark D. Sparta, the center's president and executive vice president of population health, said in a statement.

The plant will house the hospital's boilers, steam equipment, chillers, cooling towers and emergency generators. Officials anticipate that construction will finish by early 2020. Demolition of the structure where the plant will sit is underway, officials said.

“Hackensack Meridian Health continues to put patients first and deliver the highest quality care,” Robert C. Garrett, co-chief executive of Hackensack Meridian Health, said in a statement. “Investing in Hackensack University Medical Center, the network’s flagship hospital, is an integral part of transforming health care and offering our communities the very best.”

Hackensack Deputy Mayor Kathleen Canestrino said Tuesday that she welcomed the hospital's plan to upgrade its facilities. Because the hospital employs thousands of workers, and also provides locals with immediate medical services, she described the center as "good neighbors."

"It really makes them a cornerstone of economic development not only in the city, but in the entire county," Canestrino said. She added, "Even though it's the very beginning, it's just another step on the way for [the hospital] to really continue its path to excellence. We're happy that the center continues to call Hackensack home."

The plant's construction, which officials described as a milestone in the hospital's campus transformation and modernization plan, was celebrated at a ceremonial groundbreaking last month on the heels of the City Council's adopting a Second Street Redevelopment Plan for the area.

Fran Reiner, Hackensack's city planner, described the plan at a recent council meeting as a key step in addressing flooding in parts of the city — namely because of a combined stormwater and sewage system that backs up, causing an unpleasant mess for residents. The only properties addressed by this plan are owned by the hospital, he said at the time.

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"If a developer comes and proposes a project, then they’re going to have to fix the system along Second Street and Atlantic Street and separate out those systems so the stormwater can go into the river and the sewage can go into [the Bergen County Utilities Authority], like it’s supposed to," Reiner said at the meeting. "It’s a critical piece to why the redevelopment plan was done in the first place."